môr(G)wyn was composed specifically for performance on the computer-controlled sound system of the subterranean Sound Gallery in Rådhuspladsen [City Hall Square] in Copenhagen (Denmark). Twenty-five loudspeakers were embedded just below the surface in a 5x5 grid, while computers in a room beneath the square controlled the ‘choreography’ of the sound across the space.
Inspired by Copenhagen’s famous and apparently benign tourist landmark, the Little Mermaid statue, môr(G)wyn explores the sea’s contradictory yet indivisible characteristics of beauty and danger as symbolised in the mermaid / sirens myth. It brings together two pools of material – sea sounds and female voices – in two contrasting musical manifestations, one violent, the other lyrical. The title môr(G)wyn is a fabricated word containing a number of mainly Welsh resonances, including sea, death, girl / maiden, white / blessed and mermaid.
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môr(G)wyn was realized in December 1996 in Copenhagen (Denmark), during a ten-day residency. The piece was commissioned by Ketil Teisen (Lydl@boratoriet) and Michael Madsen (Sound Gallery) as part of Copenhagen’s year as European City of Culture. The sound material was developped in the studio of Lydl@boratoriet, with computer spatialisation composed in the Sound Gallery studio beneath the Rådhuspladsen [City Hall Square] (technical assistance: Steen Johannessen). Preliminary work was done in the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK). môr(G)wyn was awarded 2nd prize ex æquo at the Hungarian Radio’s EAR’97 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music (Budapest, Hungary, 1997).
Preparation
Composition
- December 1996, Copenhagen (Denmark)
Awards
